All that's in books are people's experiences. Colin Fletcher? Experienced backpackers like Ray Jardine have a lot to say - they may be crackpots by many standards but there is a lot of useful information to learn from. Stephen Herrera? He'll tell you black bears evolved in a different environment than grizzlies and will react differently to you. Haven't seen anything in Barry's posts that indicates he knows any of those books exist. Even Bryson's Walk in the Woods can teach you how NOT to approach backpacking.

If he's joking about the shields painted to look like people, he's not reading any of the bear books (or any other animal safety material) out there, because there's comedy gold in the ones that suggest urinating around your campsite and he didn't even use it.

If he's serious about shields, he's definitely using the wrong books.

Either way, I'm done - he can go where he wants and do what he wants - judging from the pattern of what he responds to and how he responds, he's not really interested in using the forum in the way it was intended.